# Three non-technical, non-PR, non-Management Speak words you really hate **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 11, 2005, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754 "2005-04-11T05:57:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/61 "2005-04-18T06:32:32Z")
> [@Taber](#): > > Sammich, sammidge, and any other hideous mispellings of sandwitch that contain the letter ‘M’ are blights on the written word that should only be tolerated in 6 year olds. You mean “sandwich”, right? ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/62 "2005-04-18T06:35:22Z")
> [@Taber](#): > > Sammich, sammidge, and any other hideous mispellings of sandwitch that contain the letter ‘M’ are blights on the written word that should only be tolerated in 6 year olds. **Taber** , old chap, it’s sandwich (no ‘t’), named after the Earl thereof (I think that was his title), Sandwich being a small town in England. I know perhaps the only person in the whole of England who religiously pronounces the word as “sand-which”, very deliberately. She’s a lovely lady, but this weird practice forms the basis of what is agreed to be my pretty passable impression of her. In fact she e-nun-ci-ates e-ve-ry syl-lab-le of e-ve-ry word. No mean a-chieve-ment. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/63 "2005-04-20T04:10:17Z")
I can’t stand the use of **kosher**. I recently made a smartass (that is probably a word that is going be mentioned in this thread, but I like it) remark to my dad when he used it, telling him he was wrong. Our conversation was prompted by a news item about the Norwegian Dawn (the cruise ship hit by a big wave). We were talking about keeping a boat stable on rough waters. What he said was “If you are in rough waters, all you have to do is point the bow at the waves and everything is Kosher.” This is when I decided I had had enough of the misuse of the word. I responded “Really? It will be in compliance with Jewish religious law?” He attempted a stammered response, but I had won the situation. Please use kosher only when you are referring to religious law (kosher is used for Islamic relious law too, isn’t it? 😕 ). If you think that you may have to use it, don’t. Instead, search for a synonym for “good”. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/64 "2005-04-20T04:29:12Z")
I believe **halal** is used to indicate compliance with Islamic law. Funnily enough, given that two posters have nominated “orientate”, I hate the American **oriented**. To me, that sounds like something that has been stylised in the fashion of an Eastern country, not something pointing the right way. I’m not a fan of **goofball** either, for some unknown reason. Can’t think of a third right now, so: Hi Opal! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/65 "2005-04-20T04:43:17Z")
Thank you, **Dead Cat**. I wasn’t sure of the right placement of kosher. Why use goofball when **idiot** will do just as well? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/66 "2005-04-20T04:51:55Z")
Regarding the pernicious psychobabble use of the word ‘issue’, the Singapore Government has come up trumps in their Clean Public Toilets Education Campaign. > [@Minister Mental and his Merry Men](#): > > Aim: To maintain public interest and awareness of the public toilets issue as well as to remind and encourage the practice of good toilet etiquette I could swear htat I read that as toilet tissue first time round. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/67 "2005-04-20T11:55:08Z")
> [@The Great Zamboni](#): > > Why use goofball when **idiot** will do just as well? 😉 Because some goofball’s are geniuses! ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/68 "2005-04-20T13:05:44Z")
Going along with “Issues” is “Baggage.” I hate it when people say that someone has or is carrying a lot of baggage. It is such a dismissive thing to say. I have serious problems caused by important events in my life. All you have is a lot of baggage. ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/69 "2005-04-20T18:55:47Z")
**cred** (I overheard our director of marketing use that word to describe the positive responses of a survey campain.) **bling** (it’s already jumped from noun to verb now that one can buy a kit to ‘bling’ one’s IPOD, cell, laptop, etc) **’-izz’** anything (foshizzle, hizz-ouse, and the like) ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/70 "2005-04-20T19:44:14Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > Speaking of genitalia, am I the only one who hates the word “pee”, especially when spoken by a woman? For God’s sake, you only do it eight or so times a day. No need to prove your bra-burning credentials by mentioning the damn word in every other sentence. Huh? What does women’s lib have to do with using the word “pee”?? And who says it in every other sentence? I find it less irritating than “urinate”. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/71 "2005-04-20T19:46:29Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > “basically” > Meaning, “I’m about to abbreviate the story I’m going to tell you, but try to appear clever in the telling by reducing the essence into a sound bite”. As soon as that word appears, I know I’m going to feel my eyeballs roll. > > And “clearly” is getting old, too. It’s a good word, but wa-a-a-ay overused, and almost always for effect. It’s a putdown. If you don’t agree with the person’s position, you are in some way too dense to get it. I hate it. FUCKING HATE IT. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/72 "2005-04-21T01:12:33Z")
Virtually ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/73 "2005-04-21T02:02:14Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Huh? What does women’s lib have to do with using the word “pee”?? And who says it in every other sentence? I find it less irritating than “urinate”. Well, it’s partly an irrational thing (I just hate it), and partly to do with the over-informational aspect of its use by some people, almost always in my experience women. What I mean by that, is that in contexts (spoken generally) where the situation enables the speaker to make a wordless (or a periphrastic) reference to the act, people explicitly S-P-E-L-L it out. Instead of saying “Just need to go”, you get “I need to pee”. If the same person needs to use the cash machine, they’re unlikely to say “Wait here. I need to withdraw cash from the machine”; a simple “Hold on a sec - need some money” will suffice. I link it with feminism because of the proclivity of some women to see it as their mission to give it to you straight re body parts: vagina, penis, whatever, instead of the various euphemisms and nicknames. To me, not radical, just irritating and boring. At least, one other person [has a simillar reaction to the word ‘pee’](http://www.foldedspace.org/lynn/archives/003884.html): > [@blogger commenter](#): > > When we were little, my mom hated the word pee. We were not allowed to say pee, and were taught it was a dirty word. We had to say wee-wee. To this day I find it difficult to say the word pee. Everyone I know says, “I got to pee.” Not me! I say, “I have to go to the bathroom.” I still don’t say pee around my mom. I am scarred. Not that I advocate ‘going to the bathroom’. But ‘have to go’ or something similar gets the message across without bashing you over the head. And while wee-wee is childish and twee, a simple, single wee does the trick for me. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/74 "2005-04-21T03:08:34Z")
Boy, a number of these terms and phrases I’ve never even heard before and I found them annoying the first time. Re. “issues,” I was tired of it in the US and then _really_ winced everytime I heard it pronounced in the Caribbean with three syllables: “is see yous.” The British probably say it that way too and I want to sock em in the nose. I don’t like the way police on the news call a person an “individual.” Lately I’ve been noticing how often people being interviewed on public radio say “sorta” when something is simply true and not “sorta” at all. It seems to that kind of reverse self-deprecation that really means one is bragging but trying hard not to sound like it. “I, sorta, lived in Costa Rica in those days and we, sorta, organized a co-op.” You need the commas there because there is a slight, unnatural pause before and after the word. ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/75 "2005-04-21T03:49:41Z")
[hijack] > [@Dead Cat](#): > > I believe **halal** is used to indicate compliance with Islamic law. > > Funnily enough, given that two posters have nominated “orientate”, I hate the American **oriented**. To me, that sounds like something that has been stylised in the fashion of an Eastern country, not something pointing the right way. > > I’m not a fan of **goofball** either, for some unknown reason. > > Can’t think of a third right now, so: Hi Opal! Glad to see “Hi Opal!” is still alive and kicking. It’s one of the things I remember from Ye Olden Days. [/hijack] Personally, I can’t stand: -pretty. “Pretty” is NOT an adverb. You didn’t do “pretty well” on the test, you did “fairly well” or “rather well.” -smack dab. Just don’t like this one. -God (oops, did I type that out loud?). Seriously, I don’t like corruptions of “Jesus,” namely “jeez,” “yeesh,” or, worst of all “cheeze.” If you’re going to take the guy’s name, do it right. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/76 "2005-04-21T04:05:01Z")
“Titties” – horrbile word. Just horrible. I’m not offended my breast wods in general. Boobies are cool. Hooters don’t bother me. There’s just something about the word “titties” (as spoken by a grown person or adult character in a story) that makes my skin crawl. “Lube” - Ew. All I can say is “ew.” Again, it’s not because I am squeamish on the subject. I would be happy to discuss the relative merits of Astroglide vs. the Good Vibrations house brand. But I have nothing whatsoever to say about lube. ugh. And an honorary mention to “Who Moved My Cheese?” a book so loathsome the mere mention of it can send me into a froth. I only mention it because my pal **Phatlewt** once combined the three above into my all time most hated phrase: . . . wait for it . . . “Who Lubed my Titties?” Yet for some reason, it makes me laugh my ass off . 😃 ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/77 "2005-04-21T05:36:32Z")
> [@Hello Again](#): > > And an honorary mention to “Who Moved My Cheese?” a book so loathsome the mere mention of it can send me into a froth. I’m proud to say I’ve never read it. But I did read [this excellent review](http://thebookhaven.homestead.com/Z_Who_Moved_My_Cheese.html): > [@Top Review Snip](#): > > I can’t help but laugh my butt off about the symbolism here. High level managers want to give this book to their subordinates. They want them to relate to the mice in the book and quickly, happily adapt to change. Uh, hello? So you’re basically saying ”You’re really all just rats in a maze. So why don’t you read this book and quit whining when we change things around here. Thank you, the Management.” > > Personally, I think Cheese is an insulting metaphor for many of the life changes we face today. > > We’ve decided to move our operations to Mexico. This department will be dissolved and your job terminated Dec. 20. Merry Christmas! Go find more Cheese. > > Honey, I’ve decided to leave you and our four children under the age of 6. Bye. Go find more Cheese. > > Sorry I totaled your car ma’am. I wish I had insurance to pay for it. Guess you’ll have to go find more Cheese, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/78 "2005-04-21T11:49:40Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > But ‘have to go’ or something similar gets the message across without bashing you over the head. And while wee-wee is childish and twee, a simple, single wee does the trick for me. I wan to grab my nearly-sixty-years-old roommate and tell him something my father said to me once: “Grown men do not go ‘potty’ or ‘poop’!” ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/79 "2005-04-21T12:20:17Z")
I heard an expression that even the first time that really annoyed me: Pee Pee Whacking. As in, “He was out of line so management gave him a real Pee Pee Whacking.” There are so many things wrong with this. First, I really hate the twee sounding term “Pee Pee.” But beyond that is the over-macho emasculation fear and the overall penis obsession. It makes me feel like I’m back in junior high school listening to the boys try to act all tough but having no clue what they’re doing. ---
**Author:** ![MrAlpen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@MrAlpen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAlpen)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754/80 "2005-04-21T13:26:53Z")
I’ve really only got one word that I find irritating, I think (at least irritating enough to generate oral froth), and that’s “like”. It gets everywhere: from the introduction of reported speech ("… and he’s like ‘what are you throwing up about?’, and I’m like ‘please stop using the word like in that context’) to general hippie in-fill (“it’s like all my class use it this way”). Where did it begin? I BET it was those damned Americans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-non-technical-non-pr-non-management-speak-words-you-really-hate/298754.md?page=5)